You may have heard some of these myths about driving but they aren’t true.

The number of drivers on the road today continues to increase and that means the possibility of more accidents. The good news is most people are attentive and cautious drivers and it is only a few that cause most of the problems we face on the road today. But there is one thing that the world of motoring has in common with everything else, there are a few misconceptions that have come about over the years. Here are a few myths that people regularly accept as true that really aren’t.

For potential new drivers that are still looking forward to passing a driving test, it has long been a rumor that driving test examiners must fail a certain number of people. If you think about it, this doesn’t even make sense. There would be no point to failing a good driver and possibly passing a less than adequate driver and put everyone in danger. This myth could have been started by some teenager who was failed even though he or she was convinced they were a good driver.

Lately it has been assumed by many that using the hands-free features of new phones will make it much safer to use the phone while driving. To the contrary, several studies have shown that talking on a phone even using Bluetooth is still a distraction and some claim even more dangerous. Distracted drivers have been increasingly blamed for rising numbers of traffic accidents and fatalities in the past few years. The culprit is seen by many to be texting on smartphones while driving.

Many older drivers remember being told that the proper position of the hands while driving was at the 10 and 2 o’clock positions. While this may have been considered the optimum driving grasp in the past, today with advent of air bags it is no longer considered so. Placing your hands at 9 and 3 now seems to be the more acceptable steering wheel grasp now.